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As we wind down the 2011-12 NHL season, it’s only fitting to take a moment and pay our respects to the “dearly departed” – those teams we know will be golfing in a couple of weeks. Here now is a quick look at each of the teams looking ahead to 2012-13 already, in reverse order of today’s standings. Columbus Blue Jackets What went wrong: Pretty much everything. James Wisniewski’s 8-game suspension crippled the team out of the gate. Coach Scott Arniel tried switching his team’s approach from an aggressive to conservative style mid-season, but the results were too poor to save...

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It seems these days not a day goes by that there isn’t something about the mediocre Toronto Maple Leafs that’s making the headlines. At first blush, the signing of Mikhail Grabovski to a five year, $27.5 million contract seems rather ludicrous. We’re talking about high-end salary for a streaky scorer that’s never put up 30-goals or 60 points. But is the contract really that far out of whack? Let’s do this arbitration-style, and look at some comparables. Comparable #1: The 2004 NHL Entry Draft – Part 1 Grabovski was drafted 150th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2004 NHL...

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Ken Hitchcock has more than 500 wins, a .590 career winning percentange and a Stanley Cup to his credit. But he’s never won the Jack Adams Award for NHL Coach of the Year. With all due respect to the great work John Tortorella, Dan Bylsma, Kevin Dineen and Mike Babcock are doing with their respective teams, Hitchcock should win his first Jack Adams Award this year. The impact he’s had on the St. Louis Blues has been incredible. To illustrate this, let’s take a look at how each of this season’s coaching changes have played out. Ken Hitchcock Pre-hiring: St. Louis...

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With the NHL Trade deadline a little less than a month from now, speculation is heating up. Actually, that is a bit of an understatement. Speculation isn’t just heating up, it’s already reached a good rolling boil. We’ve entered the silly season of trade rumours people, where Ryan Getzlaf could be traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, you know, just ‘cuz. It’s not just fans or the media that can get swept up in the euphoria that is the trade talk. General Managers can too. With that in mind, here are the four worst trade decisions that could be made...

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At the end of the 20-game mark, I took a look at the “real” NHL standings in the East and West. Now that every team has played their 40th game, it’s time to even the playing field once again and see what’s really been going on in the NHL. Last time, I made special mention of a team’s special teams, goals for and goals against performance for the season. This time, to learn a bit more about an individual team’s strengths and weaknesses, each squad was ranked in six categories*: Goals for (GF) and shots-for (SHF) were chosen to evaluate...

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[Every week, Caylie King looks at the Canucks week that was and the Canucks week ahead. You can follow Caylie on Twitter (@cayking).] The Canucks started the week with a shootout loss to the San Jose Sharks and followed it up with a dominating 3-0 win over division rivals, the Minnesota Wild. Then came the most anticipated game of the season – a rematch against the defending Stanley Cup Champions, Boston Bruins. And it didn’t disappoint. Despite being hyped up all week long, it lived up to its expectations and more. It felt like we were right back in the...

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ABOUT CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG

Canucks Hockey Blog is a blog containing podcasts, opinions and commentary on the Vancouver Canucks and the NHL.
First established by J.J. Guerrero in 2005, CHB features regular contributions from Christopher Golden, Matt Lee, Clay Imoo, Elizabeth Moffat, Jocelyn Aspa, Victoria Pattison-Denault and various other contributors.